Life has been very crazy the last month! I can't believe I did not get Caleb's first day of school pictures posted or share any of his fun stuff going on. Caleb is in 2nd grade this year and has Mrs. Berreckman. He is really enjoying her class. One of his favorite thing about 2nd grade is that each student has their own ipad to use. They do lots of math games and reading on them along with games. Caleb got to participate in the Pass, Punt and Kick event at school. He did not make the top 3 in any of the categories, but said he had a blast playing football with his friends. Over the summer Cozad Elementary was awarded a grant from BuleCross and BlueShield of Nebraska to build an outdoor fitness center (that is also open to the community!) as part of Project Fit America. On October 3, Caleb will be singing at the dedication ceremony. He is very excited! The Governor will be there along with it being televised. I know no details regarding channel, time or if it will be available in Omaha. Sorry!

First day of 2nd grade

  Over Labor Day weekend we attended Family Camp here at Camp Comeca. Family Camp has been held for over 50 years. Most of the families that attend started when the now grand parents were young and bringing their little kids. It is a fun weekend filled with lots of fellowship, singing, kids on bikes and break out sessions for both kids and adults. Caleb and Chase were in separate classes and got to meet some cool kids. Caleb even got to build a rocket out of pop bottles and launched it in the green space! One of our favorite activities was playing games as a family and John and Caleb competed in the relay races.

Caleb had to suck up cheerios as fast as he could

John pushing his orange down and back

Carson and Cecilia taking a turn at yard yahtzee

John helping Caleb decide what set of numbers to go with

 

 

I also got to take the girls to Oklahoma City for a wedding earlier this month. My Mom, Bob and Auntie Kelly let us carpool with them. Thanks for driving Mom! We were packed to the MAX with both girls car seats and 4 adults plus all our bags. The girls did great in the car on the way down and on the way back. While the girls and I were gone one of the summer counselors came out to help John with the boys while he worked. The boys had a blast with special dad time and hanging out with Olivia.

 

Doing a little site seeing

Cecilia having a good time at the reception

 

Camryn would not smile for Auntie Kelly

Me and my girls

 

While getting ready for the wedding my mom got the call no child ever wants to get. My grandma (the one who lives in RedOak, IA) had passed away earlier that day. Despite getting this news we went to the wedding and reception and had a very good time with family. After 8 hours in the car to get home we turned around 2 days later to go to grandma's visitation and funeral. We were in Omaha/ RedOak for 48 hours and drove back home. It took both the girls and I a little time to recover after so many hours in the car! I am so thankful we made the time to go see her on our last trip to Omaha and got pictures of her and all my kids. I love and miss you Grandma!

 

Grandma with my family

 

John has put in some VERY LONG hours this month. The UMC Great Plains extended cabinet was out at the beginning of the month. They are not a demanding group, but if there is a group we want to really impress it is this one. The same day the cabinet left, all the camp directors from Nebraska and Kansas met to do I am not sure what. After they left John tried to drain the pool for painting. Well, of course the pool did not cooperate. John and Pat eventually had to go get a pump to drain the pool. Talk about a pain in the butt. What should have taken 1 day (pool draining itself) took 4 days! All this pool stuff happened while the girls and I were gone, so then we find out about grandma and now John has to get as much of the pool power washed and ready to paint for us to be able to go to the funeral. John put in 3 consecutive 10 hour days to get it ready. He was beat and we were only 2 weeks in to the month of September! While we were in Omaha we heard about the flood water in the Platte River and that it was going to be really bad. We got home Thursday night to beat the potential flood. I am happy to report that the river has not come over the bridge, but is way out of its banks and lots of the pastures around the river have standing water. That same Sunday was the Buffalo BBQ. John and Pat put in more hours getting the pool finished up and ready for water to be put back in and getting the buffalo meat and pork ready. We had a good turn out for the BBQ. Lots of families came out to see just how good camp is looking. John gets a little break this weekend since no groups are here.

This is the north channel of the Platte River

This is the south channel

 

This is the pasture at the corner to head to camp.

 

 

I will post more in the days to come. The 49ers are playing, must go cheer on our team!

 

Love,

The Butler

 

 

 

Time flys when your having fun!

We had a super busy and super fun trip to Omaha before Caleb started school. Sunday morning we attended church at St. Luke UMC where we got to see lots of our church family. After church, we went and hung out at John's parents house and enjoyed a family dinner. John and his dad also did a little work on our Tahoe. After lunch a family friend took Caleb and Chase to see the movie "Planes". They had a blast even though Chase fell asleep.



Lunch at Grandmas.

 



Later that afternoon we went over to Great Grandma McCullough's  house to visit her and my dad. The boys LOVE going to her house. Grandma always has fun toys for them to play with. This time she had out a tabletop hot shot basketball game that she had when I was little.  She also had a super cool car and track set. The cars have headlights that turn on and they are self-propelled. This time Grandma showed them a cool trick with the track. My grandma also made us 2 loaves of zucchini bread to take home. They were very good and did not last long! YUMMMMM!


Carson playing with the cars and track!

 Grandpa Harry, Great Grandma Marilynn and Camryn

Later Sunday night we had friends come over and visit. It was so nice catching up with our friends, but it was bitter sweet returning home knowing that we don't get to see them as much as we would like. Miss you guys!   
 

 John with Zach and Tim with Camryn

 

AB holding Camryn

 

 My kids with AB and Zach

 

 

Chase and his girlfriend AB

 

 

The kids also got to play with their friends who live in the circle. We sure have fun with our circle friends.

Caleb on a go cart

 



All the circle kids

We also went and bought a van Sunday night after our friends left. We are now owners of a 2000 Honda Odyssey. I am so excited to not have to get my climbing gear on to buckle the kids in the Tahoe. The van has power doors and the boys are still saying how cool it is to have a van!

 At 2:00am (Monday morning) we heard a loud thud followed by sobs. John went to check on the boys and found Caleb on the floor between the bed and the wall. After listening to John insist that Caleb was fine and that he should go back to sleep for the 39th time, I decided to go help John. Turns out Caleb cut his knee pretty bad on the floor vent(what are the odds of that?) and resulted in me taking him to the ER to make sure it did not need stitches. In the end they did not put any stitches in due to location of the cut, but cleaned it out really well and used steri strips to keep it shut.

Monday morning started with a trip to the consignment shop to do some quick back to school shopping for Caleb. We found a few good shirts and a pair of shoes for him and Cecilia. Next stop on the list is a play date with our old play group. The moms of this play group met at Massage Associates, LLC where we all worked together. Our kids range in age from 7-baby. It was very nice to kick back and chat with my moms! If there is one thing besides our family I miss it is this play group! I got to sit and chat while the kids played, we played pass the babies and ate lunch together! John did not join us for this play date (wonder why?), but he got to go hangout with his good friend Chad. They went to Cabela's and had lunch. 

 All the kids minus the babies

Tara with Camryn

 



Monday afternoon we headed to Red Oak, IA to see my grandma. The kids slept all the way there(John too) and all the way back. The nursing home let us use the activity room so we could keep the kids corralled and it has toys. The kids were so well behaved(like always) and did great talking and loving on grandma. We got lots of great pictures. She seemed to enjoy the kids and loved holding the babies.

Cecilia crawled right up on  Great Grandma's lap

Chase holding hands with  Great Grandma

 Great Grandma smiling while holding Camryn

 

After getting back to Omaha we had a big dinner at my mom's house with Mom, Jamie, Sam and the girls, Kelly and Rob. Jamie and John grilled dinner and Kelly made a dump cake. Before we left Uncle Jamie took Caleb on a spin around the circle on his motorcycle. I am not a fan of motorcycles and was not super happy about this, but Caleb had a blast and that is what matters. After dinner we made the trek back to the ZAD. We finally made it home at 1 am and were in bed by 1:15!  

Caleb and Uncle Jamie

Kelly, Mom, Jamie and me

 

 

We had a very busy 48 hours and lots of pictures from our journey!
Maybe one day when we come back for a visit we will get to chill out while we are there. Nope, not thinking so :)

Love the Butlers

The Greats

My kids have the awesome privilege of having 4 great grand parents still living. 

Sometimes we take for granted having our loved ones with us.

This last week we got to finish getting pictures of the kids and the greats. 
It makes me so happy that my kids love seeing these special people! 

Over the 4th of July some of John's side of the family came to visit Including Great Grandma Caroline. Granny got to hold Camryn along with getting some good
quality time with the other Butler kiddos.

 

Great Grandma Caroline with the kids 

 

 

 

Great Grandma Caroline with Camryn

 

 

While in Omaha we ate lunch with the Butler's and G-PaPa. The kids had lots of fun playing at Grandma's house and hanging out with the family!

 

G- PaPa with the 5 kids

 



Camryn taking a snooze on G-PaPa's lap


After eating lunch with the Butler's we headed over the Great Grandma McCullough's.
The kids love going to her house because she always has the coolest
toys for them to play with. They look forward to going to her house every trip!

 

 

Great Grandma Marilynn and the kids

 

Great Grandma Marilynn with Camryn

While we were in Omaha we also made a side trip to RedOak, IA, where Great
Grandma Helen lives. My grandma has Alzheimer's and has her good days
and bad days. Thankfully while we were there she was up and seemed more
 responsive when the kids talked to her and help her hands.

 

 

Cecilia sitting on Great Grandma Helen's lap!

Great Grandma Helen with all of the Butler's

We love all our grand parents and are excited that they have been
 able to enjoy the great grand kids.

They are as tall as me!

Sorry it has taken so long for another blog post. 2 weeks ago our computer started to be goofy and would not open any documents or the internet. We went and got a new computer and are back online!

We also FINALLY figured out how to get the videos off our new camera. I guess clicking on the "import pictures and videos" helps!

Enjoy

 

 

 

If you hit the ball into the green outfield you get to run 2 bases! 

 

Big hitter!

 Ring around the rosie

Camryn is almost 2 months old! She is growing so fast and is already developing special bonds with her siblings. Cam loves when Cecilia plays with her hair. When Carson holds Camryn she smiles at him with a special something that I don't know how to explain. It is the perfect moment that I wish I could pause. I will describe it as if in that moment she knows just how special Carson is and that she wants to learn to love people the way he does. Carson is one proud brother! Chase loves to hug Camryn and most times it is a little to hard, but she never cries, just makes a face that says "Please stop". Caleb has always had the gift of getting the biggest smiles out of babies. I don't think I have gotten as big of smiles as he gets and I am the food source. That should rank me pretty high on the list of important people...guess not!

Smile

Hello everyone!

Cecilia is talking like you would not believe. She is starting to form short phrases. The other day Chase was in a time out and Cecilia came over and asked me something. I had no idea what she said and asked her "what" so she repeated it and I responded "go for it". She then ran to the kitchen and got in Chase's face, pointed her finger at him and proceeded to scold him. Guess we have come to the point of not being able to respond to her with just anything. She also helped give Camryn a bath and even helped with washing her hair! She loves being a big sister.

Bath time helper

Outside fun

We got the stool lab results back on Carson and they came back negative (very good). We had the results faxed to his doctor at Children's and they put Carson back on his laxative. They believe that his small intestine and large intestine slowed down again causing his poop to get stuck making what could come out very runny. I was really worried about putting him back on this since the nurse said it would get worse before it gets better, but it has made a huge difference. We also heard back on his thyroid and turns out it was a lab error. Thank goodness! The new results still showed one of his levels are a little high but the doctor said that his growth rate could be causing the level to be off. They made no changes to his meds for now and will recheck levels in October. Carson is also trying hard to keep up with Cecilia's verbal skills. When he watches Disney channel cartoons he interacts with the show!

Laughing at Mommy

Chase is starting to transition away from always playing with Caleb to playing with Carson and Cecilia more. He likes being the one they fight over and they race to him and give him big hugs. Chase has also grown so much over this summer that he is already in clothes that Caleb wore when he was in kindergarten!! BIG BOY!

Painting pictures for Daddy's office

Caleb is gearing up for school. His first day of school is August 26th! We are still waiting on his letter of placement which tells us who he will have for a teacher. He wants Mrs. Neal, but we will see who he gets. Caleb is also very excited for back to school shopping. He can't wait to get new shoes and clothes. Mom has her fingers crossed that some of his jeans will still fit this fall!

O yeah, I'm cool

My incision is almost healed up and is only of a quarter of an inch long. Woo Hoo!!! I am also keeping busy by sorting through the basement and getting rid of things we no longer need. Starting this fall I will be getting out of the house on Tuesdays. There is a MOPS in Gothenburg where I will be able to make connections with other moms with kids around the same age as mine. On the Tuesdays that I don't have MOPS I want to help the local thrift shop. Our Methodist church runs it and helps give back to the community. As far as I understand it, nothing in the store is over $5. I do know that most kid clothes are only 25 cents! This will also provide me time to make some friends at church and really get involved in the Cozad community. I am really looking forward to this fall!

Butler girls!

John has made it through his first summer of having a boss at camp. I think it is safe to say he enjoyed this summer much more than last summer! John is already looking forward to the off season and getting Camp's name out there and getting groups booked through out the off season. This last week John had a moving moment down on the challenge course with a group. The group was on the "V" which is a rope challenge that is 18 inches off the ground. A team starts out at the small end of the V and has to walk along the rope as they get farther and farther apart using only each other for balance. The team was a husband and wife team and on the first attempt they did not make it very far before loosing balance. When John asked the rest of the group who was watching what they saw they said that each team member was pulling instead of using one another for balance. On the second attempt they made it a little farther but still had some problems. Again John asked the group what they saw. They saw the wife push against the husband but saw he was pulling.  They were determined and went all the way on the third try. At the end of the time down on the challenge course John asked the group to share what they learned. The husband spoke up and said he learned that he needs to trust his wife more and to not try and take on every problem by himself. John came home energized and inspired. This was a new experience for him. He knows and is use to being able to help youth, but this time it was a married couple! He has a gift for helping people and it is awesome knowing that he is still able to do that out here. 

I think he's lost it!!!!!

Our garden is rocking it. We have had loads of peas, green beans, carrots and green onions. 2 weeks ago our corn got silks and now have ears! We should have our first sweet corn in another week or two! We are doing some research on a year round garden and we excited to learn that there has been lots of people how are able to have a February - November garden.


They are as tall as me



LOVE,
THE BUTLERS


 

WEE!

The 5 Butler kids!

Camryn is 1 month old! She had her check up this week and is now 22 inches long and weighs 10 pounds. She is in the 80% for her height and 70% for weight. Maybe, just maybe, she will be tall like Grandma Butler! Camryn has started smiling. She also likes to watch siblings play. Camryn also has a full head of CURLY hair.

Her hair after a bath

Hi everyone!

Sweet baby girl sleeping

 Cecilia is becoming more and more like a toddler everyday. She wrestles with her brothers, runs with them and is talking so much. She can now put words together to form short phrases! Her favorite is Hi Camryn! 

Snack time!

Play time outside

Sisters Forever!!

Carson, Carson, Carson! Where do I begin? First things first! He is talking!!!! His team set a goal for him to use his signs with words and he has once again shown them that he can do better than their goal. When we ask him to repeat something he does and can also tell you the name of an animal and the sound it makes. On Cecilia's wall, there is a letter "C" with two cats. Today Carson pointed to the cat and told me "cat" along with "meow". Another thing he does that makes me smile is, he climbs into Camryn's swing (usually when she is not already in it) and rocks himself from side to side causing it to swing. While he does this he says "WEE!". Makes me laugh every time even though he is not suppose to be in the swing. I can only imagine how good he must feel. If the feeling I get when he meets a goal is indescribable, then he has to feel 110 times better then I do, right? 

Carson is also having some minor health things going on. One is his thyroid again. He had a regular blood test done to ensure the thyroid medicine is at the right dosage and the levels came back extremely high. High enough that the endocrinologist called me instead of the nurse. The Dr. is hoping it is just a lab error since Carson is not exhibiting other symptoms to indicate high levels.  We will be repeating the blood test this next week. If the levels come back high again it will mean his pituitary gland is growing. This is not uncommon, but also unlikely since Carson is not showing other signs of this. Along with the thyroid issue Carson has some digestive things going on. I will spare you the gross details of this but lets just say Mom and Dad are tired of cleaning poop off of the walls, crib, floor and child! Nap time gets interesting in the Butler house :o) Our regular physician here in Cozad is having us collect samples to have some tests run to make sure there is nothing going on inside. If the samples come back negative we will again be seeing our GI specialist at Children's. I love Dr. T, but it always makes me nervous to see her. When I think of Children's Hospital I see sick kids. Carson is not sick, he just poops ALOT! 

Nap time fun! 

Chase has been having a blast this summer. He is old enough to remember that in Omaha we always went to our friends Ward and Kathy's for a 4th of July party. Since we have seen some fireworks out here he knows it is the right time to go to their party. He keeps asking to go to "Nickers" house. It took John and I a few days to figure out who he was talking about. Snickers it the name of Ward and Kathy's dog and he wants to go to Snickers house and see more fireworks. 

Bubbles!

This weekend Caleb will be a camper at Camp Comeca aka home! He is going to be one of 25+ kids spending the weekend here. He has been talking about being a camper for over 3 weeks now. He prays about it every night and talks non stop about all the cool things he will get to do. At the top of his list of cool things is going down to the water front, swimming and roasting giant marshmallows! He told me today that he will be the first camper to arrive at camp and the first one home since all he has to do is walk. 

The Boys!

John is one busy guy. There have been a few camps where there is no dean to run the camp so John has had to be dean, program guy along with Dad and husband. It does not take him long to fall asleep once he gets to lay down! I am not sure how he is able to get up every morning and take the dog on a walk before his work day begins along with taking care of our garden in the evenings. I think the garden has kept him sane this year. It allows him to get away from everything around him and he can see the results almost immediately. We have been able to enjoy green beans, peas and green onions from the garden and our corn has started to tassel! 

Beans

Broccoli and Carrots 

Children of the Corn! 

I had to see a surgeon last Friday about my incision. Some of you already know but I have a spot that is not healing well. The surgeon said that there is nothing he wants to do about it right now. It should heal itself in the next 4 weeks. If by next Friday John can't see a noticeable difference I will go back and we will reevaluate. The spot is only and inch or so long and it does not cause any pain and does not inhibit me in doing things around the house. The only thing I can't do is swim or get in the hot tub.  On the upside I am already below my pre-pregnancy weight! GO ME!!!!

Love,
The Butlers